Fly Like A Hawk

Chapter 145 - Capture The Flag Ruthless Style

I held my arms out for Miguel and Eli to secure a red flag on each one. They looped on with elastic and looked fairly ridiculous.

"Alright, ready?" Hawk asked and I was about to answer when Demetri pulled up.

"Oh, I was born ready. Just like MIT, you're not going to Barcelona without me." He finger gunned Miguel and then sped off to get some flags.

"Great," I scrubbed my tired face with my hands, "Now there's another person to worry about if I wanna get to Barcelona."

Miguel and Hawk eyed me nervously, they were the only people besides Robby that knew about how high the stakes were for me in this competition.

"Don't underestimate yourself. You have plenty of tricks up your sleeves." Miguel reassured me, but I knew he was going to do whatever it took to get to Barcelona, including taking the chance away from me.

I looked over at Hawk and he stayed silent, instead shifting awkwardly on his feet.

"What, bro?" Miguel asked him, "Everytime he mentions MIT, you go grey."

Eli checked that Demetri was out of earshot before throwing his hands out in defeat, "I didn't apply."

"What! Why?" Miguel whispered.

I tried to look less awkward until Miguel pivoted and stared at me as well, "You too?"

"For me, that frat party we went to made me realise that I never even looked at any other schools." Hawk explained, "We picked MIT way before all this karate stuff. I just wanna see if there's a better option for me."

"And for me, I don't have the funds. I'm barely holding it together right now so MIT is just out of my league." I tried to stop myself from looking so disappointed, "Plus it was always their dream not mine, so like Eli I never really looked anywhere else. I guess I just wanted to be where my best friends were."

Miguel and Hawk stared at me.

"I....I hear you, but MIT is pretty great," Miguel argued for the college, "and they have some neat scholarships you could check out."

"I know it's great. It's all Demetri can talk about. It's killing me." Hawk complained.

"And me!" I stressed.

"You should probably tell him though, both of you."

"Top 12, get ready!" Barnes called from the deck and we listened, falling in to two lines. "Today's challenge is a battle Royale. The rules are simple. Protect your flags. Steal the others. Lose your flags, and you're out. The ones with the most flags at the end go to Barcelona."

I looked down the rows and found Anthony jigging nervously at the end with Kenny setting his jaw opposite him. "The rest of you will be judged on performance. Ready?"

We bowed to each other then jumped into fighting positions. "AIS!"

I knew I had to strategise and quickly, as soon as it started, everything was gonna turn to carnage.

"And fight!" My head flicked in Barnes direction, I hadn't expected it yet.

Kenny rushed for Anthony and then everyone scattered. I jumped back as they pushed past me and then grabbed forwards at Nate's flags. I felt one running through my hand and tightened my grip, yanking it backwards and in turn Nate too.

He fell to the ground as I stared unbelieving at my hand. I had one of his flags. I held it up triumphantly then set off at speed.

I caught sight of Anthony ripping off one of Mitch's flags and running away and chased after him. I passed Mitch as I did and spun round him, distracting him just enough to snag a second flag from his back.

I was on fire and I didn't plan on stopping.

"LaRusso, I'm coming for you!" I heard Kenny scream and as I turned to the side he was jumping over the deck on the pond. I turned, making an unexpected stop along his way.

He looked past me and I took the opportunity, I lunged forwards, trying to grab a flag.

"No you don't!" he called, shooting off to the side. He was fast as he turned and dropped his stance lower.

He threw several punches at me that I dodged, "You listened!" I called to him as he showed me what I'd taught him yesterday.

"What can I say," he dove towards me with a high kick,"it was good advice."

"Yeah, but you haven't thought about something else." I breathed as I tried to land a punch on him.

"What's that?" he asked as he ducked back.

"This."

I dropped fully to the ground and swiped his leg from beneath him, he fell backwards as I ripped his leg flag off.

"The lower you go, the less stability you have." I ran off and ran straight into Demetri. I slammed into his chest and tripped backwards.

He stood there staring at me widely with a red flag in his hand and I reached my hand round to my back panicked. He'd pulled off my flag and now he was running away.

Kenny ran past and snatched one of my arms, "You snooze, you loose." He called as I hopped quickly back to my feet.

I turned and saw Hawk standing behind me.

"Ok, you wanted to spar." He was missing at least 3 flags, "lets go."

He came at me with a flying kick and I stumbled backwards but I regained my footing and lunged forwards, I forced him into close combat. Keeping him occupied with a barrage of punches, I let my legs help me.

I waited until he was distracted by where I'd try my next punch and then kicked him hard in the leg. He jumped back and stared at me menacingly then brought his fury down in a sequence of kicks, punches, jabs, chops.

I flailed around trying to fend him off. He was ambushing me and I was struggling to keep up. I saw an opening, a spot where I could get in to jab his ribs. I shot my hand out and closed the gap between us.

We crashed into each other as Sensei Barnes called the end of the exercise. I fell to the ground and looked up at Hawk to find him holding one of my flags.

"Dammit." I grumbled but as I opened my hand I revealed that I'd got one of his.

"Shit, where'd you get that from?" He complained, checking all of his flags until he found the one on his back that I'd snatched.

"We're good though, right?" I asked, not wanting this to cause yet another catastrophic fall out.

"We're good." he confirmed. He got up and brushed himself off then offered me a hand to my feet.

We regrouped with the others and as we did I saw Daniel supporting Anthony into the dojo whilst Anthony clutched his nose. Kenny came over guiltily.

We lined up and everyone held up their flags. I looked down the line to find Tory, Sam, Robby and Miguel holding up loads of flags and my eyes widened at their amount as opposed to my meagre handfuls.

"Alright, we've clearly got out top four." Barnes announced, "Tory. Roby. Sam. Miguel. You four are going to Barcelona."

They celebrated excitedly as I dropped my head, that meant there was only 3 spaces left.

"You bottom six are tied." I looked along at Hawk, Eli, Demetri, Kenny and Devon. "I'll go back tonight and review my notes, re-tally the scores. I'll announce the final two in the morning."

"Unbelievable!" Eli cried and stormed off. I reached my hand after him to grab him but in the end just let him go.

I pulled off my remaining flags and looked over at Demetri, he was staring after Eli. He didn't look as confident now that we were all in the bottom six with only three spots left.

I drew in a deep breath through my nose and then handed my flags back in. I smiled at Miguel and Robby then headed over to get my stuff. I glanced over at their celebrations as I reached the gate to leave and then pushed on out because no matter how much I wanted to, I couldn't celebrate with them until I'd secured my spot.